Leighbot
Leighbot, was a robot entered by Leigh City Technical College in Series 1 of Robot Wars. It managed to reach the Arena stage of its heat before losing to Mortis. Design Leighbot was an unusually-shaped robot whose long angled box design resembled a coffin, or what Jonathan Pearce described as a 'woodlouse'. The robot was armoured in bullet-proof stainless steel, and featured a front lance and a rear angle grinder as its weapons. For its Gauntlet run, a fan was attached to the end of Leighbot's lance, which it used to clear smoke as it negotiated the course and helped improve the team's vision. Leighbot was powered by two 24v wheelchair motors, but had a slow top speed of 3mph as a result. This, along with a lack of self-righting mechanism, contributed towards its defeat in its only battle. The Team Leighbot was entered into Robot Wars by Leigh City Technical College in Dartford, hence the robot's name. The team consisted of both students and teachers, and was a rare instance of a team in the original run of Robot Wars featuring four televised team members, as the three-person limit was only imposed from Series 2 onwards. Amongst the team were the captain and navigator Robin Williams, chief designer and engineer Tony Schofield, Chris Malyon, who did the weapons, and team co-ordinator Eileen Hobbs. Other people involved in the robots construction were David Williams, the team's technical Advisor and chief controller engineer, and various members of the college's Technology departmentLeighbot website - The Leigh Roboteers Club (Archived). Robot History Series 1 Leighbot competed in Heat B of the First Wars, and started its campaign by running the Gauntlet. Leighbot charged into the Gauntlet, where it easily got off the turntable and headed straight for the middle route. It was then blocked by Sergeant Bash who jammed the see-saw, but Leighbot managed to make it over, then after dodging the Sergeant headed for the next ramp, where it used a fan attached to the end of its lance to blow the smoke out of the way so that the team could see where Leighbot was going. Leighbot was then clattered by the spiked swinging ball and made it to the end zone in the second fastest time. Leighbot qualified for the Trial, which was a game of British Bulldog. In the Trial, Leighbot started slowly, and was nudged into Dead Metal by Scrapper. Then, Shunt came in to block, but eventually Leighbot managed to get free and go across the finishing line in third place. For the Arena Semi-final, it was drawn against Mortis, whom the team had hoped not to face immediately. The fight did not go well for Leighbot as the lance weapon was useless against Mortis' tough armour, at worst scratching it briefly. Mortis used its speed and agility to get around Leighbot and bring its tantō axe into play, which rapidly pierced holes in Leighbot's armour and crumpled the lance. Even though Mortis did briefly drive onto the arena spikes, Mortis then finished the battered Leighbot by using its wedge to get underneath Leighbot and turn around, before reversing and pushing the sideways-facing Leighbot backwards, causing the coffin-shaped robot to roll over, landing upside-down on a grille. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 0 *Losses: 1 Series Record LeighbotTop.jpg|Top view of Leighbot with no top armour Leighbotpits.png|Leighbot in the pits Leighbot photoshoot.jpg|Leighbot during a photoshoot NOTE: Leighbot's successful Gauntlet and Trial runs are not included Outside Robot Wars A while after its appearance on Robot Wars, much of Leighbot was recycled to be made into an Arduino segway. Trivia *A.J. Engineering donated wheelchair motors, wheels, tyres and controllers for Leighbot, and K.T. Motors donated batteries. *Leighbot is the only robot in history to add a specific feature to neutralise smoke in the arena. *Leighbot's battle with Mortis was the origin of the there-after often-used term "pepper-pot". *Leigh City Technical College was one of only four teams in the UK series to feature more than three televised team members prior to 2016; Leighbot, Scrapper and T.R.A.C.I.E. were seemingly permitted to by Series 1's rules, while Team Berserk was allowed extra space for a translator. *Like its successor, Leighviathan, Leighbot participated in Heat B of the main competition in its only appearance, and lost at the Arena Semi-Final stage. References External Links *The archived Leighbot website Category:UK Series competitors Category:Robots from Kent Category:Robots to complete the Gauntlet Category:Robots with Retracting Spears Category:Robots from Schools or Universities Category:Robots with Circular Saws Category:Robots with Spikes Category:Robots that only progressed in the Gauntlet or Trials Category:Robots which debuted in Series 1 Category:Robots which lost their only battle Category:Robots which only fought in Series 1 Category:Robots with cameo appearances in Series 2